Kevin Neale was the destroyer as Cromer Twos thrashed Diss to keep up the pressure at the top of the Norfolk Alliance Division Five on Saturday.
Having been hit by the only raincloud in the county in May when the away fixture was called off, Cromer were in ruthless mood at the Norton Warnes. The visitors were duly dispatched by a massive 133 runs as the Cromer steam-train kept rolling towards the top of the table.
Lithins won the toss and decided to bat in search of maximum points. Opening with Gascoyne, the pair plundered runs from the off and reached 70 in no time before Lithins (27) dragged a wide ball on. Gascoyne had made a cool and deliberate 57, but when he lost his wicket it preciptated a mini collapse which left the Cromer innings in the balance at 125/5.
A rescue party was called for, and this came in the form of a fine Ollie Kimber 70*. Kimber decided attack was the best form of defence and along with Dickens(20) and a swashbuckling 13* from Taylor took Cromer to a respectable total of 238/8.
Knowing the bowling attack was capable of executing the task at hand, Lithins’ men went about their work in short sharp bowling spells from all the bowlers to bring about the downfall of Diss. The ever reliable Kev Neale bowled with astute precision to return outstanding figures of 7-3-10-4 as the visitors crumbled.
A short fielding session before the game clearly paid off with some outstanding groundwork and stunning reflex catching from Gascoyne as Diss capitulated to a miserable 105 all out.
Confidence is high at the moment at Cromer, and the following two weeks against Bradenham home and away will go along way to determining the champions for 2009. With last week’s victims Halvergate beating Bradenham Cromer remain third, but with only five points separating the top three Lithins' men are looking forward to the challenge.